It was created in 1986 at the initiative of various human rights organisations with the aim of developing forensic anthropology techniques to help locate and identify the Argentines who had disappeared during the "Dirty War" period of the 1976–1983 military dictatorship.

Since then, the Team's members have conducted field work in 30 other countries, including Bosnia and Herzegovina, Angola, Timor-Leste, French Polynesia, Croatia and South Africa.

[1] In particular, the EAAF acquired additional worldwide renown by identifying the remains of Ernesto "Che" Guevara, found in Bolivia.

CONADEP and the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo took the initiative and travelled to the United States, where they were vouchsafed the determined support of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

In the words of Clyde Snow: By 2000 the EAAF had succeeded in identifying sixty sets of remains, while a further 300 cases were still under investigation.